About the Team

Professor Karen BradleyFaculty Advisor and Associate Professor of Dance in the School of Theatre, Dance, & Performance StudiesAs a Certified Movement Analyst, I have been both fascinated by the potential and concerned about the inaccessibility of the over 3000 film elements that constitute the Alan Lomax Choreometrics collection. As an educator, I am thrilled at the possibility of a searchable, legible, analyzed, contextualized, tagged and meta-tagged database of these captured moments of dance. My interest is in a more connected and peaceful global sensibility that acknowledges the role of meaningful movement as cultural communication, and the digitized collection will provide possibilities for understanding each other in profound ways.

Christina Banalopoulou, UMD PhD Student, Theatre, Dance, and Performance StudiesDue to my background in Anthropology and Movement studies, what fascinates me the most about our project is that we are inviting people in by outsourcing an archive of meaningful body stories that if not digitized, will be silenced forever.

Drew Barker, UMD Master’s of Library Science CandidateMy background in dramaturgy leads me to create bridges from knowledge sources to places where they may best be absorbed by people who want to learn about the human experience. The Choreometrics project presents an opportunity for deeper cultural understanding through resources that inherently facilitate the search for meaningful cultural literacy.

Sargoon Nepaul, UMD Junior, Majors: Neurobiology and PhysiologyMy deep understanding of the biology and of body as well as my background in South Asian Dance will help Chroeometrics bridge the gap between science and Dance. My history with neuroimaging will also assist in incorporating imaging technology to provide a new way to look at dancers.

Emma Sessions, UMD Senior, Major: KinesiologyThe Choreometrics project is of importance to me because of my study of Kinesiology, my passion for dance and my interest in movement as a fundamental function of the human experience. In particular, this project can help us to understand the interdisciplinary role of dance in understanding the bodies and minds of the people and cultures who dance.

Kate Spanos, UMD PhD Candidate, Theatre, Dance, and Performance StudiesI am interested in the role of dance and performance in cultural identity formation. Because of my undergraduate background in cognitive science, I am interested in connecting performance studies and dance anthropology with cognitive neuroscience and computer technologies.